Head of Security

Security

Head Of Security

Access: Armory, Head of Security, Bridge, Brig, Maintenance, Security

Difficulty: Dante Must Die

Duties: Herd your cats in red shirts. Arrest your fellow heads of staff. Be almost instantly distrusted by almost everyone despite (or perhaps because of) your position.

Supervisors: Captain

Subordinates: Warden, Detective, Security Officer, Security Cadet

Guides: This one.

Abandon all hope, ye who enter here, for this position is the hardest of them all. You are the first and last line of defense against any and all threats to the station, and will inevitably be blamed for everything negative that can and will ever happen. Most likely, only some of it will be directly your fault.

To tackle the insurmountable task of single-handedly keeping the station from crumbling under the linchpin that is you, you are given a sub machine gun, a power hungry Warden, and a gaggle of mall cops with the equivalent IQ of a horsefly. Good luck!

Tempestas Sub Imperium - Control under the Storm

Though you are the physical head and sword arm of the station, you are the mental head as well. You alone cannot stop the storm that is to come—your first and most important job as the Head of Security is to organise and direct the security force.

There are many ways to do this, most of which will be outlined here.

First Impressions

To latejoin as the HoS is to accept no one is going to listen to you. Your briefing, or lack thereof, sets the tone for the entire shift, as well as influences how your force will react to you. State your position, make clear the power you hold, and above all else, ensure your authority is recognised. Be stern, be quick, and use your only time as the centre of attention to lay out your expectations. Ensure your team is geared with Radios, Crowbars, Suit Sensors, the like. Ask the Warden their preferences, and get to know your team.

Solo vs. Duo Patrols

A common method of organisation within security forces is to split into two-man teams—most commonly; Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, and so on. While it is an easy way to quickly establish a form of structure beyond the standard, there is merit to comparing the benefits and reductions of both.

Solo Patrols

Pros:

• Increased awareness from each individual officer, they have to look out for themselves
• Officers act autonomously
• Higher sense of urgency to fulfill orders (since they are issued directly to the person)
• Covers double the ground in the same time
• More consistent threat response times

Cons:

• Harder to coordinate/direct
• Requires increased alertness from the HoS and Warden to keep tabs on officer statuses
• No partner means no officer to keep another "in check"
• Officers have a higher chance of not listening to orders
• Reliant on good communication

Duo Patrols

Pros:

• Twice the bullets, two sets of eyes—more potent responses to threats
• Easier to coordinate/direct (especially with a large security force)
• Able to gauge team statuses quicker, and more reliably
• Slacking off is de-incentivised
• Harder for officers to be picked off and/or outnumbered

Cons:

• Difficult to set up, taxing to maintain (you have to keep track of latejoins and adjust teams accordingly)
• Pairs don't always get along
• Sending a team of two to every minor issue may strain availability
• Strong, opposite forces may wipe out entire teams, where the alternative is a lone officer being lost
• Slower threat response times, due to being more spread across the station

Your game loop

After your briefing, your shift begins. Regularly check officer statuses, ensure wanted statuses are kept up to date, and ensure sentencing is fair. Though the Warden may control the bulk of sentencing, you have the final say, and it is up to you to choose to intervene or not. Patrolling yourself is encouraged, as this job is much less passive than that of the Captain. Set an example for the rest of your team, because you are the standard to which they will look up to. Take orders from no one but the Captain, but take criticism to mind.

During Green alert, nothing but nonlethals should be used. The discharge of a service pistol is a serious message, whether you recognise it or not. As the alert level reaches Blue or above, small firearm use may be authorised by you. But again, de-escalate. It's your job to follow and respect escalation rules, even more so due to your position as a departmental head.

On Red alert and above, longarm use becomes a serious option. Your door remote, as well as the Warden's, has the capability to set the Armoury to emergency access. Most stations come equipped with two SMGs, two Rifles, and an assortment of armour and hardsuits for use against Antagonists, or solely out of necessary (due to atmospheric issues, for instance).

After (and if) the use of longarms is no longer needed, ensure all lethal weaponry is returned and accounted for.

No one is above the law.

Officers, Departmental Heads, and even the Captain may be arrested and held in lawful confinement should they break space law (Note that such breaks Roleplay Rule 15, "Command and Security must follow Space Law", and instances should be ahelped).

Pax Ex Vi - Peace via Superior Firepower

Though things may look bleak, NT provides you with some of the best equipment available—given, you know how to use it. It may not be optimal for every threat, but you are more than well armed enough to take on most of those who stand in the way of NT interests.

Weapons

WT550

The first of which, and possibly the most important is the WT550. Chambered in .35 Auto and being the only one-handed (attainable) SMG in the game, the WT competes with guns like the C-20R despite the slower firerate. Being one-handed makes this gun good. Nothing that could possibly be added to it would signify it more than that.

Sitting at a comfortable firerate of 5.5/s, it comes out to 88 Piercing DPS against an unarmoured target, provided you hit your shots. In comparison, the Drozd manages 92, while the Lecter deals 85. Conversely, the C-20R inflicts 128 (albeit, with even higher spread than the Drozd). Keep in mind, at their maximum spray, the Drozd and C-20R are relative in effectiveness to putting on a blindfold and trying to shoot a womp rat from high orbit.

When it comes to solely DPS, the C-20R is the one and only victor. However, we have another hand open.

With a shield alone, your effective health is doubled. With a sabre, or energy sword, you gain a not insignificant reflect chance. With another magazine in hand, you can double your spray time—and thus, possible damage—with no real cost. Holding a jetpack in the other hand is another possibility, trivialising combat in a zero-G environment unless your opponent also has one. Jetpacks being the ultimate equaliser is a much larger can of worms, but keep this in mind.

Energy Shotgun

The energy shotgun is an interesting beast. It is a two-handed shotgun firing from an internal battery that recharges similarly to the captain's laser pistol. It has three modes, all firing at the same fire rate of 2 shots per second:

• Disabling - Shoots three bolts with the same strength as the disabler SMG's bolts in a narrow spread, using 1/10 of the total charge per shot. It takes 7 bolts to disable a target, so to get the quickest possible stun (three shots) you can miss 2 out of your 9 total bolts.
• Narrow - Shoots four bolts each dealing 13 heat damage in a very narrow spread, using 1/6 of the total charge of the shotgun. This makes for a total damage per shot of 52, giving an unarmored DPS of 104, although this is somewhat misleadingly low due to the first bust coming out immediately. It can crit someone in a mere two blasts if all bolts hit and the target has no heat resistance. It is theoretically capable of hitting all four bolts for a two-shot crit at ranges of up to around 5.5 tiles, but such a case is unlikely outside of an execution or heavily slowed target.
• Wide - Shoots five bolts each dealing 13 heat damage in a wide spread, using 1/8 of the total charge of the shotgun. This means a per shot damage of 65 and a whopping 130 maximum DPS, more than every other typically seen gun save the L6 SAW. However, this comes at quite the cost - the spread is VERY wide, meaning it is impossible to land every bolt at a mere 2-tile range, and impossible to hit four bolts (and thus two-shot crit) at a 3-tile range. At a 4-tile range, the most bolts you can hit is two.

This gun is exceptionally powerful in the right hands due to its high damage, atypical damage type, and ability to stun. It can handle pesky creatures and traitors alike easily, and is even able to deal with the nightmare scenario of an active shooter traitor with a C-20R and web vest with relatively little trouble. Its self-recharge ability also means that it can be carried all shift long in this role with no need to go back to sec and recharge.

However, it suffers from one major fatal flaw - low ammo capacity in the moment. The recharge has a considerable cooldown to start up after firing, meaning it just can't last in an even slightly prolonged engagement. It will win spectacularly quickly or fail spectacularly quickly with little room in between. What this means is that under no circumstances should you rely on the energy shotgun alone - you must carry a pistol or even the wt550 in addition to the energy shotgun. Additionally, when faced with major threats like nuclear operatives (who have substantial heat resistance), it may be best to leave the energy shotgun in the locker in exchange for more slots in your backpack for other useful items.

If you don't feel like using the energy shotgun for whatever reason, it is also an acceptable option to give it to your warden, who will doubtlessly appreciate the gift - and all things considered is probably less likely to lose it than you are, since they will not be out and about and getting into fights as much as you.

Armour & Unique Equipment

WIP.